These seem like positive signs all around. From everything I've heard about kernel development, dealing with Linus himself has been the most difficult and discouraging part of it for many people. It's good he's coming to grips with the fact that the community is, after all, bigger than he is and that his influence on it hasn't always been for the best.

I don't know. Linus' mail about Kay Sievers (systemd) was pretty spot on, if you ask me. Maybe it takes a "disrespectful turd" (like someone below called him) to properly manage Linux development. But that remains to be seen.

Dian, thanks for saying this because it seems civility and empathy are arguments that fall on many ears that willingly turn deaf when they hear them, especially the paragons of "meritocracy above all" (which doesn't actually exist but that's an argument for another day).

I wasn't sure what "post-meritocracy" is so I googled it and came across this - postmeritocracy.org/ - which in its manifest contains this sentence that is more or less the point:

But meritocracy has consistently shown itself to mainly benefit those with privilege, to the exclusion of underrepresented people in technology. The idea of merit is in fact never clearly defined; rather, it seems to be a form of recognition, an acknowledgement that “this person is valuable insofar as they are like me.”